Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is a wireless metropolitan area network technology based on IEEE 802.16 standards. A WiMAX network is mainly formed by three components, namely, a Mobile Station (MS), an Access Service Network (ASN), and a Connectivity Service Network (CSN), where the ASN includes a base station and an ASN gateway, and the CSN includes entities such as an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) server, a message server, and a location server.
A Universal Service Interface (USI) system is an interface that opens service capabilities of a WiMAX network to a third-party application inside or outside the network. By invoking the service capabilities provided by the USI, the third-party application can develop services for WiMAX access users more easily, and can provide personalized services for WiMAX access users more conveniently. Capabilities of the WiMAX network that are developed by using the USI system include application layer paging, positioning, user information query, user authentication, Quality of Service (QoS), and the like.
In the WiMAX network, a user has a unique internal identity, and the internal identity is stored in the AAA server of the CSN. The WiMAX network provides capabilities and services of the WiMAX network based on the internal identity. However, in consideration of security and privacy, the internal identity is not exposed to entities outside the WiMAX network. When an Application Service Provider/internet Application Service Provider (ASP/iASP) (briefly referred to as an application in the present invention) provides services based on WiMAX USI system capability for a specific user, the application must identify an internal identity of the user in the WiMAX network with a USI identity (ID) of the user, so that the WiMAX network can provide services based on the internal identity.
An existing WiMAX protocol defines a format of the USI identity ID. The USI identity ID is formed by two components: a temporary pseudo user identity, and a Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) of a USI system of a Network Service Provider (NSP) of the user. The USI identity ID is assigned to the user when the user is online.
During the development of the present invention, the inventor found that the solution for defining the USI identity ID in the prior art has at least the following defects.
The conventional USI identity ID is temporary, and the USI identity ID changes over time or as the user accesses/exits the network. Therefore, the solution is not applicable to a scenario where the application actively initiates a USI service request. Meanwhile, since the USI identity ID in the solution is assigned only when the user is online, the initiation of a USI service by the application when the user is offline is not supported.